Conviction upheld in 1997 gang-initiation stabbings

12:37 PM,
Mar. 12, 2013

Shane Gressel

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A man who stabbed two teens - one of them fatally - as an apparent part of a gang initiation rite in 1997 has lost his fourth bid at getting his conviction overturned.

Shane Gressel, who was 19 at the time but is now 35, pleaded no contest in 1998 to being party to first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree reckless injury. The charges involve the January 1997 death of Jeffrey Neosh, 17, and injury of Damon Schwartz, 17.

Gressel claimed two gang members put him up to the stabbings at a house party on East Walnut Street as part of his initiation into their gang. Those two alleged gang members also ...